Differnt Size, Differnt Feelings
by animaniacslover7
Summary: When an accident happens to Twigleg, and the gang met up, how will Twigleg's feelings change for his friends? Pairings inside – takes place at the ending of the book - Rated T for language and suggestive themes
1. Chapter 1

**Takes place at the ending of Dragon Rider. SorrelxTwigleg, Burr-Burr-ChanxSorrel, FiredrakexMaia**

**I do not own Dragon Rider, Cornelia Funke does.**

Two months can be a long time. A very long time.

"Come on," said Guinevere, leaning against him on the window seat. "Let's go out and look for fairy tracks, okay?"

Ben tore himself away from the sight of the empty sky and nodded. "I saw some down by the pond yesterday," he said.

"Good." Guinevere led the way to the garden gate. "We'll try there first, then."

"Dress warm," Vita Greenbloom called after them. "There's a smell of autumn in the air this morning."

"Wait a minute, I'm coming, too!" cried Twigleg, scrambling hastily down the table leg.

"But this time, you must translate everything they say to us," said Guinevere, putting his knitted jacket on him. "Promise?"

"Even if those fairies just talk more nonsense?" snapped Twigleg.

"Yes, even then," replied Guinevere. 'I want to hear their nonsense, too."

Ben grinned. Then he picked up Twigleg and followed her outside. Yes, two months could be a long time. But not with a sister like Guinevere.

So outside to the pond they went. Both humans knelt down to see small, barely noticeable imprints in the mud.

"I knew you'd be right," Guinevere told ben, which was holding Twigleg on his shoulder. "You always are."

The trio silently followed the trail of footsteps to long grass by the pond and pushed aside each blade to continue on their path. They eventually came to a large, leafless tree.

At the base of the tree were two small female fairies, dancing and playing with each other. Ben accidentally made a crunch noise on the ground and the two fairies looked towards them in surprise, and then zipped into a hole in the trunk of the tree.

"Oh, darn. That was the first good look of them we've seen in a while!" Ben whined as he plopped onto his bottom on the ground. Twigleg hopped off his shoulder and ran over to the tree. He scurried up the trunk and was about to jump into the small hole when Guinevere spoke.

"What are you doing, Twigleg?" she asked with surprise.

"Just trust me," he told them as he peeked into the hole again. "I'll be fine."

So in jumped little Twigleg, and the step-siblings both looked through the hole with one eye shut. Inside was a small group of fairies, a little more than half a dozen. Most of them gasped at his sight and a couple of the males began racing towards him. They grabbed Twigleg by the arms and brought him in the middle of the hallowed out area. They began to speak what sounded like gibberish to the humans at a fast rate. Ben was about to reach in and snatch Twigleg from them, but Guinevere stopped him and told him it might make matters worse.

When the fairies finished discussing with each other they pushed Twigleg to his knees and all of the pixie creatures began to shoot a glimmering substance at him. It soon began to become very bright in the tree, and suddenly, a flash of light burst from the hole and spooked the humans so that they fell backwards. When they recovered, every inhabitant of the trunk was missing, including Twigleg.


	2. Chapter 2

"Where'd they go?" Guinevere asked, peering inside the hole once more.

"Who cares where _they_ went, where's Twigleg?" Ben shouted in panic.

Guinevere was about to respond, but they heard a loud rustling from behind the tree and turned to look at what was there. Out staggered a young, skinny boy a couple years older Ben, and they both stared incredulously at him. He had pale white skin and wild red hair. He was wearing the same suit that Twigleg normally had and a somewhat long nose. He was clutching his head in pain and gave a small yelp at the two humans.

"How did you two get so small? How did _everything_ get so small?" he breathed, looking at his surroundings.

"Twigleg, is that you?" Guinevere asked in a small voice.

"Well, of course it's me," he spat. "Who else could it be?"

"B-but you look human now." Ben stuttered as he reached out to touch the now big homunculi.

Twigleg flicked Ben's hand away. "It must have been those damn fairies. They were trying to decide how to punish me for violating their home. Guess this is what they chose."

"Well, I don't see how it's all that bad," Ben said, walking up to Twigleg. "Look, you're taller than me!"

"Well, we better get you back to dad; I've never seen fairies do something like this before." Guinevere stated before taking his hand and leading him back to the house.

"My, I never knew fairies could perform this kind of magic!" Barnabas boomed as he looked over Twigleg.

"That's what I said!" Guinevere shouted to her father.

"Is there any way to fix this?" Twigleg gestured to himself.

"I'm afraid not. You'll just have to wait it out, I suppose." Professor Greenbloom told him.

"How long is that going to take?" Twigleg whispered in fear of the answer.

"Who knows? But I'm sure won't last forever though, so don't worry." He reassured.

So the months passed, school got out and the Greenbloom family traveled to the ancient city of Persepolis, where they didn't find Pegasus, but they did find some interesting pure white feathers. They were on their way Zubeida's to meet up with Firedrake, Maia, and Sorrel.

"What do you think they say when they see me?" Twigleg laughed, having still not changed back yet due to the fairies magic.

"I'm sure they'll be surprised, but they won't think any different of you." Vita said.

"Who knows, maybe Sorrel will stop needling you!" Ben said and he and Guinevere burst out laughing. Twigleg just rolled his eyes.

Once they got to Zubeida's, they saw a crowd of children surrounding two large silver figures.

"Firedrake! Maia!" Ben called out to the dragons.

The twin colored masses of scales, horns and claws made their way over to the group of humans.

"Ben, it's good to finally see you again!" the silver dragon told the boy and lowered his head down to see him better.

"You as well, Firedrake," he sighed as he hugged Firedrake's muzzle. "And you too, Maia."

Maia dipped her head in greeting to Ben and his family.

"And where is Sorrel?" Twigleg regretted asking, but almost had to.

"Oh, she's over there, with Burr-Burr-Chan," Maia nodded her head in the direction the dragons had come from, where there were still kids gathered around. "Is that you, Twigleg? What happened?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later." He murmured.

"Come on, let's go see her then!" Ben called to Twigleg and Guinevere, already walking towards the two brownies. It was a surprising sight to see.

Sorrel was talking to the children gathered around her; she was even holding one of the little girls in her arms. She had a bright smile on her face and didn't seem agitated at all.

"Well, what do we have here?" Ben asked in a half mock, half real surprise.

"Oh, hey; it's good to see you all again," she told them as she put the little girl down and most of the children ran off to play with one another. Only the little girl stayed and hid by Sorrel's fuzzy leg. Sorrel bent down and whispered something to her before the native girl ran off the play with the other children.

"Sorrel, what the blazes happened to you?" Twigleg exclaimed upon seeing her behavior, and partly because of her appearance. She had gotten a bit taller than last time, almost as tall as Ben. She now had a tuft of fluffy fur on her head that cover part of both her glowing emerald cat eyes. Her yellowish fur had become a couple shades deeper, as well as the spots of brown dappling her coat. Her figure was slimmer and more toned, and she even had a small incline of her chest. Her short, lynx-like tail slightly twitched at the sound of his voice and her ears swiveled toward him. She looked over at him in surprise.

"Well, excuse me, but do I know you?" she asked a little roughly and looked him over.

"Sorrel, it's Twigleg," Guinevere whispered to her furry friend. "We had a run in with some pesky fairies and they used their magic on him, now he looks like this."

"Really? Well, it looks like pipsqueak isn't such a pipsqueak anymore." Sorrel gave out a short chuckle.

"But what did happen to you, Sorrel? You don't seem like that grumpy, short brownie I met in that abandoned building in the city all that time ago!" Ben said and gave out his own laugh.

Burr-Burr-Chan came over and put one of his four arms around the two-armed brownie's shoulders.

"Let's just say that Sorrel matured a lot along the journey." He said. For some reason, Twigleg didn't particularly like it when Burr-Burr-Chan did that. Sorrel just shrugged off his arm. Burr didn't look fazed or hurt by her action.

"I also cut back on the mushrooms a bit," she said as she scratched her lean stomach with her mostly dull claws. "I think it paid off."

"I'll say…" Twigleg murmured under his breath. Only the two brownies heard it because of their acute hearing. Twigleg blushed, remembering about their hearing, as did Sorrel upon hearing it. Burr gave a scowl directed at Twigleg.

The two siblings didn't notice any of it, except that Guinevere thought she saw a red glow under the fur on Sorrel's cheeks.

"So does that mean you won't take the mushrooms we've been collecting?" Ben asked as he pulled out a small filled bag. Sorrel sniffed the air and playfully snatched the bag from her old traveling companion.

"No, I'll definitely take them," she said, licking her lips and eying them hungrily.

The group laughed at her response and continued to talk about most of their endeavors of the last 4 months.

All fell silent as a large shadow fell over the five and its owner snatched Sorrel up to leave her dangling helpless. Then, she was suddenly thrown into the air, where she started to plummet back to earth.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorrel fell lightly on a silver mass before sliding down a scaled back and tail, and finally landing on the solid ground below.

Twigleg gave a breath of relief; he got so frightened he almost shouted out her name.

"Firedrake, don't scare me like that!" she scolded the dragon playfully. Firedrake gave a chuckle that caused smoke to come from his breath.

"Sorry, but it's starting to get late. We need to find a place to stay for the night. Does anyone know where we could sleep without being seen?" asked and turned his head around to see what there was nearby.

"There is a grove of palm trees not far inland, if that is suitable for two dragons," Zubeida Ghalib informed as she walked over to the group of different creatures. When Sorrel sent a scowl that her way she added, "And two brownies of course."

"That'd be fine, thanks." Sorrel answered for Firedrake, so Zubeida pointed to the direction and the pair of silver masses made their way towards it.

"Well, maybe we can walk you over there and then come back?" Ben asked, letting his eyes travel with the scaled giants. Burr-Burr-Chan nodded and began to stroll after the dragons at a leisurely pace.

Ben and his sister ran to Barnabus Greenbloom and requested exactly that. He gave them permission, but knew they would probably fall asleep there with the dragons and brownies. The siblings chased after Sorrel and Twigleg, as they had already started to head to the grove.

Twigleg secretly admired how her hips slightly swung back and forth in a comfortable motion. He walked a few feet behind her and tried not to let his eyes stray. He got a bit mad inside when Burr-Burr-Chan came over and grabbed her waist in a playful manner, but calmed once Sorrel pushed him away with a smirk, causing him to stumble into the sand of the beach. They both laughed and Burr-Burr-Chan scrambled back up to race after her again.

After about ten minutes of walking, they all reached a rather large and shaded clearing, covered atop by several palm trees. Firedrake and Maia plopped down in the sand, snuggled up to one another. Ben, Guinevere, Twigleg, and Burr-Burr-Chan continued to talk until it got rather dark and late. Sorrel mainly kept to herself though. Ben and Guinevere fell asleep next to each other and Burr-Burr-Chan had climbed into a hallowed out tree to sleep in. Twigleg was lying against an old tree trunk, pretending to be asleep, but in truth could not.

Out of the blue, he heard Maia give a low groan of sadness.

"Firedrake, I can't see the moon anywhere…" she trailed off and Firedrake cast a glance at Sorrel. He silently nudged the sleeping Brownie with his maw and she swiped a poorly aimed paw at him. He poked her back with his face again and this time, she turned her head to face him, a tired look on her face.

"What do you need, Firedrake?" she asked, trying her best to be polite, even though she was really quite tired.

"Well, if it's not too much of a bother, I was hoping that you could sing for Mia and myself." He requested with a sheepish dragon smile. She responded with her own small grin and stood up, before walking over and sitting by the matching dragons.

She cleared her throat and began with a low, almost sad tune. It soon picked up, however and was quite relaxing to listen to. It sounded like she was singing a tale of hardships being overthrown by triumph. Twigleg soon felt himself being pulled into a mind numbing sleep, but not before he heard the singing die out and feel something placing itself by his side.


	4. Chapter 4

_What the hell?_ Was the first thing she thought when she woke. How did she get like this? She was less than a foot away from Twigleg, practically snuggling up to him!

Fighting off a blush, she thought of the night before. She had been woken by Firedrake, because he wanted her to sing to them, badly. So she had, but then what? Right, she had gone over near Twigleg because the spot she had been laying had gotten cold, and it was much warmer near him. If that's all it was, then why was she so embarrassed about it? No one was awake, thankfully not even Twigleg.

He just sat there with his arms over his chest and she watched as it went up and down with peaceful breathes. He looked rather content, with a tiny smile on his lips. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she began to walk off somewhere she could be alone to organize her thoughts. She knew just the place, too.

Twigleg awoke a minute or so after the warm form next to him had vanished. Rubbing his eyes and looking around, he saw that everyone was still sleeping, and he noticed that Sorrel was missing. Something tugged at his heart and he identified it as worry, something he had experienced many times for Ben.

He whipped his head back in forth for any hints of where she may have wondered off to. He spotted a light trail of paw prints in the sand leading away from the grove. With a grunt, he heaved himself up and started after the trail. Something, however, caught his eye before he walked away. There was a round indent in the ground a few inches away from where he had been sitting. It looked as if a large cat had curled up there.

Had Sorrel really slept next to him? His checks grew warm at the thought, but he focused on finding the pesky brownie girl he had fought with so many times before, and set out.

The sun was raising high in the pink and orange sky, above the crystal blue waters of the ocean. Sorrel watched the globe rise slowly in the air, for once taking the time to enjoy one of the little things in life. She breathed out a sigh and leaned forward on the stone dragon she was seated on. The tomb of the dragon rider was just as well kept as the last time she was here on their adventure. She traced a carved stone flower as a cat rubbed against her leg. The damned creatures wouldn't leave her alone the whole time she was here, but they weren't bothering her as much now. She reached down and stroked its back, not taking her eyes of the sunrise. _What did the water __**mean**__?_ Her thoughts trailed off when she smelt and heard someone coming up the steps.

'_Why would she be up here?' _Twigleg thought, climbing up the last steps of the tomb of the dragon rider. He spotted her sitting on the back of a dragon statue surrounded by a few cats. The cats ran off when he approached and Sorrel's ears swiveled a bit towards him.

"Well Miss Cleverclogs, what are you doing up so early?" he teased her. She just rolled her eyes.

"Just woke up early and couldn't fall asleep again." Or was it really that she could go back to sleep where she was? Probably the latter.

"So, I have to ask, what made you stop with the names and the fighting all of a sudden? You're an awfully different brownie than the one _I_ knew a few months ago." He said, following her gaze to the sunrise.

"It's a bit of a tale." She sighed and leaned back again, closing her eyes. Twigleg got a view of her furry body and urged with a smile, "Well, we have plenty of time, so go on."

"Alright then, if I must. It was about two weeks ago, and we had stopped at a marsh somewhere in, Germany I think. I'm not sure though, Burr had the map. Anyways, It was late, so I was about to settle down to sleep, but the most peculiar thing caught my eye…"

_A small dot of bluish white light flickered at the edge of her vision. Turning her head, she saw it starting to move away. Due to her horribly curious nature, she scrambled up to follow it. _

_Sorrel soon started to stray dangerously far from their little makeshift camp, but was too interested at the moment to notice. The fluorescent glow suddenly disappeared behind a bush of extremely tall grass and short trees. Following, Sorrel pushed the vegetation aside and stumbled into a small grove like area. The day's dying light was streaming in through the top, allowing the brownie to see the enclosure a bit. _

_The first thing she did see was a group of tall Shaggy Maine mushrooms. Rushing over to them, she stopped short when she saw the illuminated speck sitting at the opposite edge of a shallow pond. Stepping closer, she watched it dance gracefully to the middle of the water, leaving gentle waves in its wake. _

_Finally, it concluded its show and sank into the clouded liquid. Leaning further in, Sorrel saw as the water steadily became clear, and images started to come into focus. _

_Burr was crouched down in an almost defensive pose, hissing at some unseen figure. Blood dripped from his mouth and coated his paws. _

_Sorrel gasped and the images slowly changed to that of a horrifying scene. Firedrake and Maia lay in a bloody heap, body parts such as horns, teeth, claws, tales and scales having been removed from their person. As the image moved back, like a camera on zoom out, she saw many of the other dragons from their valley in the same condition. _

_In her anger and confusion, Sorrel swatted at the pond water with her paw, and when it subsided rippling, it showed the Dragon Rider's tomb. Ben sat unmoving on the stone floor, flower petals in the air landing on his still body. One look at his neck told a different story than the look on his face. His expression was peaceful, almost forgiving. His neck though, had been ripped into a mangled mess. _

_Sorrel could see looking at the clip of violent after play a small, normal Twigleg shudder with devastation as he looked upon his lost master, and drop to his knees in sorrow. _

_In a spurt of movement see could see herself, standing in the door way, observing the cruel exhibit. Wiping her claws on her blood splattered fur, and her mouth on her arm; you could easily see she was admiring her own handy work. _

_Glancing at Twigleg with blood red eyes, she gave a truly evil grin. Twigleg quaked as he started to fall apart into the materials he was made from. A thin spider and plant parts lay in a heap, until the wind he was made with blew them away. _

_One more look at beastly Sorrel was shown before the whole short film was destroyed by a tear drop landing in the water. _

_Sorrel dragged herself away from the pond, but those terrifying images stayed firmly in her mind. She curled up into a ball when she heard something whisper in her ear, '__**Sorrel, the selfish brownie who never cared for her friends and family; only herself…**__' _

_After what felt like centuries, Sorrel heard a familiar voice calling her name. Shooting up from her place, she raced out toward the noise. She soon ran into Burr, knocking both of them over. He looked at his two armed friend with a questioning look while she brushed aside what tears were left and gave a gracious smile. _

_After a short white lie about where she had been, they headed back to camp together. _

"I really thought about my attitude and actions that night. I didn't get any sleep, but I realized that I needed to change to prevent any more harm on my account. I wouldn't know what to do if anything like those things happen in real life." Sorrel admitted, starring at the spot where Ben had been lying in the vision.

"I think it was a will-o-the-wisp. I've never dealt with them before that, so I hadn't known then."

Twigleg just starred at her in shock, frightened by her revelation.

"Have you told this to any of the others?" He asked as he sat on an opposing dragon, following her gaze to the hard floor.

With eyes glazed over she answered, "No."


End file.
